The Safety Solutions Academy Podcast

I like that I am able to look at my life experiences and turn them into tools that others can learn from. I just wish my washing machine worked. Oh well, my misfortune is your gain at least I hope! Stay safe and have a great day!

This podcast is a little bit painful to post. You see, for the past two years I have been eating crow as I made the switch from .40 S&W to .45 ACP. Just about the time I was really getting into my groove with the my Templar Custom Arms Glock 25.5 chambered in .45 ACP I’m going to make another switch. Yup, I’m making the switch to 9mm. I have a Caracal F that I have been testing (more videos coming early next week if things go well) and I will probably have a couple of 9mm Glocks built up in the next month. I will be testing those guns heavily in the next few months and one of them will be replacing my Trusty Glock 25.5. Admin: Sponsor of the Day: Dale Fricke Holsters Live Safe Academy: Lou Chiodo 3 Day June Course with Western Reserve Tactical and Alesandro Podovani of Safer, Faster Defense When the Balloon Goes up Defining the Context All day every day I carry a gun.  I carry a gun for one simple reason.  I want to have the tools available to deal with a life and death situation when the need arises.  I spend a good bit of time and energy being the best defensive shooter that I can be and part of the equation is making sure I have the right equipment for the job and the right equipment for me to complete the task that requires me to deploy my defensive handgun.  I continually evaluate my carry system and the context of its use to see if I can fine tune it to perform better.  This is always something that can be tweaked to make the system work better in one way or another and considering these tweaks can be a daunting task as often improvement in one area is a sacrifice in another.  Today we are going to look at some of the factors that I considered carefully in my decision to dump the big powerful .45 ACP for the 9mm. The Preferred Defensive Pistol When I began teaching defensive handgun courses several years ago, and for quite some time before I was teaching in an official capacity I was recommending, high capacity, striker fired, automatics for anyone who was interested in a defensive handgun.  My typical recommendation was .40 S&W when I started teaching, but as I started to look more realistically at why I was such a fan of the .40 I realized that I was leading myself and others astray due to my competitive background.  I liked the .40 because it made major which has no bearing whatsoever on defensive shooting.  You see, I failed in that I let some other discipline influence firearm choice.  when it comes to defensive handguns, we cannot allow anything that is not related to defensive shooting influence our decision.  Competition is NOT defensive shooting.  My error.  I corrected it as soon as I realized there was an issue. This has been an issue that I have been modifying my position as my knowledge has increased.  As soon as I dumped the .40, I made the switch to the .45.  I enjoyed the recoil of the 45 ACP more than the .4o S&W and the terminal ballistics were certainly superior to a 9mm.  Add to all that the fact that I am a pretty solid defensive shooter and I felt that I was able to handle the recoil of the .45 more efficiently than my average student… That line of thinking began to unravel almost immediately.  A couple of weeks ago I sat in an ICE Training IDC and finally faced that facts that I knew were on the horizon.  I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and make another change.  Here is why. 1.  Wounding Capacity Wounding capacity is a complex variable that smart people over simplify constantly.  Lets look at some of the important points of Wounding capacity that we must understand. Most people look at the terminal ballistics of ONE 9mm round and compare it to ONE whatever round and use this as definitive evidence as to why one round is superior to another.  If I only had one shot?  But I don’t only have one shot.  I carry a standard capacity automatic.  The terminal ballistics of EVERY round that is combat accurate matters not just the performance of a[...]

I have spent a lot of time wearing boots. For me, boots are a pretty practical footwear choice, but , like anything else they have their good and bad points. The big positive with boots is that my feet and ankles are protected in just about any situation. Foul weather, rough terrain, wet, cold conditions. Boots can handle all that in stride. One of the things that happens when something is overly protected though is that it gets soft. Literally. After fall, winter and spring stuck in boots, my feet can’t handle rough surfaces without pain. Even worse than that, all the support that boots give my feet makes my feet physically weak. The muscles atrophy and are no longer able to support without the boot. Bad news. Well, I have moved away from boots these days unless they are necessary. Now, when ever possible, I go barefoot. Admin: Sponsor of the Day: CJS Knives My Priorities Family, Courses, Podcast IFHF-OHCCW FSF 2 Day CFS Jaime Onion WRT Why I Made a Foot Gear Change The story dates back to 2005.  I had been neglecting my physical fitness for quite some time, but justified my poor physical condition with the traditional excuses.  I was a pretty strong guy, I could walk miles with a heavy pack, I could do hard work, I could hit hard, but I was pretty soft.  When I moved to my new place in Cleveland, I had a lot of labor to do and I injured my back pretty severely due to my poor fitness.  I had let my core strength deteriorate to the point where my muscles couldn’t support my spine and I paid for it dearly.  For about 12 months, the pain was unbelievable and even when I was “back to normal 8 months after the injury, my back hurt daily.  Fast forward to New Years Eve 2006.  I had a pretty good buzz going and for some reason I decided to do 10,ooo push ups in 2007.  My brother and I made up a spread sheet on Google docs and started hammering out the push ups.  Pretty soon, I was doing 100′s of quality push-ups every day and my back was improving bit by bit.  It wasn’t more than a month before my back felt better than it had in YEARS. By accident, I had fixed the real source of my back problems:  My weak core.  Yes the push-ups made my arms, shoulders, back and chest stronger, but more importantly all that time I spent in a dynamic plank position strengthened all the little muscles along my spine.  This new found core strength eliminated my lower back pain from the two discs I had herniated 2 years before.  The pain has stayed away and for that I am very thankful. My back pain is not the only pain I have dealt with in life.  My knees are in pretty rough shape as well.  I have had multiple surgeries to try and square things away, but I have never had much luck until about 9 months ago.  My brother started running in a pair of five finger shoes and was reporting that his feet and ankles were getting much stronger as a result.  I listened to him ans several other folks that I know talk about running and walking in the five fingers and started to think about the success I had with my push-ups and my back. Merrell Introduces Barefoot Shoes As I put together the concept of how I fixed my back and how I might make my knees feel better Merrell introduced their Barefoot shoes.  I have to say I’m pretty happy about that or else I’d still be wearing regular running shoes.  Five fingers were not for me. Sonic Glove  Not a bad choice if you want a dedicated running shoe but I was looking for something to wear every day. Trail Glove - These shoes were the best choice I could find when I was ready to make my purchase.  They are a touch more rugged than the Sonic Gloves and have a slightly more aggressive tread.  they work well for me 75% of the time.  They are not perfect though!   The upper is super thin porous and breathable all good if you are going for a run, but with any kind of inclement weather, my feet are soaked.  Not so good if you are wearing these shoes as everyday foot wear.  Who [...]

I have worked hard to extend my professionalism in the area of continuing education as a defensive firearms instructor, but for the most part I have been relegated to nugget hunting. Spending hours and hours in courses to find that one piece of information that made it "worth my while." As time has progressed, I have found fewer and fewer nuggets and I have a harder time spending energy away from my family and my business squandering resources for little benefit. the I.C.E. Defensive Firearms Coach IDC wasn't that way.

Firearm sales are through the roof and many folks that are buying guns are doing so for defensive purposes. This coupled with the number of states that are making it easier to carry a firearm defensively leads to a boom in training and an increase in training companies. Any time an industry expands there can be some growing pains. Different folks become involved for different reasons, some good, some not so good. A new organization has begun to some together to try and provide some guidance to Professional Defensive Shooting Instructors and their customers on what should be expected in the industry. The organization, the Association of Defensive Shooting Instructors, developed the following code under the guidance of Rob Pincus, Grant Cunningham and Omari Broussard. Today I want to talk about the code and what it means to me.

If you like action movies and at the same time despise what Hollywood does with them you are in for a treat with 'Act of Valor.' A great story with amazing action delivered by the men and women that are taking it to the mattress with dirtbags around the world. A great movie. I don't know what the last film is that I saw in a theater but by next week the last two films I will have seen will both be 'Act of Valor.'

If you haven't heard about the Caracal F it is time to take a look. I have spent a lot of time with 9mm, striker-fired pistols over the years and at first glance I really didn't think the Caracal was very different. It took me a bit of time to open my eyes and actually pay attention to see what this pistol has to offer.

My heart goes out to those affected by yesterday's events in Chardon. Early this afternoon the third victim died despite the efforts of those involved. I have invested a good bit of time today to try and bring truthful and quality information to you regarding the incidents yesterday. Part of that time was invested in talking with folks who are connected to the situation to try and gather facts on the situation. My goal with today's show is to take some general lessons from school violence and discuss. Much of the information coming from the event are still pretty fuzzy so understand that unless I specifically note a connection with the shooting in Chardon I am speaking in general terms. If I encourage something to be done I am not doing so because I believe it wasn't done in Chardon.

I have a good number of apps that I use on my phone and I must say I have become a bit of an app snob. Today we talk about the Pocket First Aid and CPR App from the American Heart Assoc. It is a good app. Check it out.

I carried and shot a .40 for years. I wish I had a round count of the number of .40 rounds I have put down range. I have no doubt that it is the caliber that I have the most experience with. This is just one of the good reasons I had to shoot .40 at the time and you might have some good reasons to carry a .40 right now. My point of today's podcast is not to disparage the .40. There are plenty of reasons why someone should carry a .40, there just aren't enough of those reasons that apply to me to make a .40 a good idea.

Why Should You Carry a Pistol when you Work Out? I can't really answer this question for you. Only you can understand what you should be prepared to deal with and why. What I can do is tell you some of the issues that you should look at that might help you to understand why it might be a good idea for you to carry.

It is important to understand that your response to any given situation will be a personal choice based on your assessment of the circumstances. Just like anything in life, our response to violence must be balanced. We must consider the totality of the circumstances that we are immersed in at the time and choose a response that is appropriate for the particular circumstances. We must take into account the legal, ethical and moral consequences to our actions. Although these considerations are important, there will be little or no time to consider the consequences in the heat of the moment. Therefore it is important to consider these areas well in advance of your need to use force so that you can make some determinations of what is appropriate and justified. As long as innocent life is preserved and any use of force is justified, you made the right choice.

I don't often cover current events or politics and I hope I don't ever make you feel like you are obligated to do what I do. I do however, want to make sure you know where I stand on issues and give you the information that you need to make decisions on issues that may be important to you. If you love coffee and guns, maybe you want to head to Starbucks, buy some java and pay your tab with $2 bills!

There are many variations to Murphy's law and I believe it pays to be familiar with them all as long as you understand that as soon as you mitigate all of the possible points of failure in a situation a new point of failure will appear and the only solution will undo all the other solutions you devised... Well, despite the fact that Murphy is always looking over our shoulder, the more prepared we are to handle situations, the more likely we are to be able to handle those situations. This is where the old principle that one is none and two is one comes in to play. It is a philosophy that I live by. Probably to a fault.

It has been a long time since I have filled you folks in on who I am and what SSA is about. With all the new listeners we have accumulated in the past two months I thought now would be a great time. thanks for listening and have a great day!